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April

IRAQI CLERICS FEAR AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL OF FALLUJA
[Friday, April 30, 2004] PARIS 30 Apr. (IPS) The United States agreed to withdraw their forces from Falluja, the Iraqi Sunni-dominated city now becoming the symbol of Iraqi resistance to the “occupation” forces. As a result senior Iraqi clerics, including Ayatollah Kazem Ha’eri, have signalled their separation from the hard line positions taken by Hojjatoleslam Moqtada Sadr, the young Iraqi Shiá cleric who has declared war on American forces. By Safa Haeri

SENIOR IRAQI CLERICS AND IRAN TAKING DISTANCES FROM SADR
[Tuesday, April 27, 2004] PARIS, 27 Apr. (IPS) The unexpected, and somehow surprising return of hard line Ayatollah Kazem Ha’eri to Najaf might be the result of the fact finding mission an Iranian delegation that visited Baghdad recently, political analysts said Tuesday. By Safa Haeri

DEMONSTRATORS URGE THE REGIME TO FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS
[Monday, April 26, 2004] TEHRAN 26 Apr. (IPS) Hundreds of Iranians, families of jailed journalists, intellectuals, scholars and political activists demonstrated Sunday in front of the office of the United Nations in Tehran, with slogans such as "free all political prisoners" or "referendum, referendum, this is the demand of the people". By Safa Haeri

KHAMENEH'I IS RESPONSIBLE OF UN-ELECTED EXACTIONS, PRESS ASSOCIATION SAYS
[Saturday, April 24, 2004] In an unprecedented move, the Iranian Association for the Defence of the Press (ADP), in a open letter, called on Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic to “start from himself answering the people” about his action during the 15 years he is serving as the country’s highest authority. By Safa Haeri

FRANCE WARNED IRAN TO FULLY COMPLY WITH IAEA
[Thursday, April 22, 2004] France on Wednesday, speaking in the name of Europe but also Britain and Germany, told the Islamic Republic to cooperate "fully" with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and present a "crystal clear" report on its controversial atomic activities to the next meeting of the Agency's Board of Director, scheduled for mi-June, or "face loosing international confidence and possible consequences". By Safa Haeri

IRAN PROTEST TO GERMANY FOR MYKONOS COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE
[Thursday, April 22, 2004] Iran protested Wednesday to Germany for the official inauguration, on Monday, in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district of a commemorative plaque in the memory of four Iranian Kurdish leaders assassinated on 21 September 1992 in an Iranian restaurant on order from the Islamic Republic of Iran. By Parviz Mardani

THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC CONTINUES CRACKDOWN OF THE PRESS AND JOURNALISTS
[Monday, April 19, 2004] The Islamic Republic of Iran added insult to injury last week by awarding the prize of “Merit” and “Best Servant” to Mr. Sa’id Mortazavi, a judge responsible for the closure of more than one hundred newspapers, magazines and publications and the arrest of dozen of leading journalists on the orders of his boss, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i. By Safa Haeri

MOQTADA SADR, THE CHAMPION OF LOSING OCCASIONS
[Sunday, April 18, 2004] While fighting continue in Iraq between the American and Coalition forces in both north and south of Baghdad with Sunni and Shi’a militants and Iranian ended their aborted mediation, a senior Iranian journalist says that Moqtada al-Sadr, the young, turbulent cleric who has reached fame thanks to the free political atmosphere in Iraq prevailing after the fall of Saddam Hussein has lost all opportunities and “soon, no one would hear of him”. By Hasan Hashemian

TEHRAN BLAMED ON THE AMERICANS THE KILLING OF ITS DIPLOMAT IN BAGHDAD
[Thursday, April 15, 2004] TEHRAN 15 Apr. (IPS) Iran condemned the assassination of one of its diplomat in Baghdad, attributing it indirectly to the Americans that, in the words of the official spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, "with their silly occupation of Iraq, they have plunged the nation, the region and the world into chaos". By Safa Haeri

IRANIAN ATTACHE SHOT DEAD IN BAGHDAD
[Thursday, April 15, 2004] TEHRAN 15 Apr. Khalil Na'imi, the cultural and press attache at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad was shot and killed on Tuesday, the official Iranian news agency IRNA confirmed. By Safa Haeri

AFTER EXPECTED RESHUFFLING, KHATAMI WOULD BECOME A DOCILE PM
[Tuesday, April 13, 2004] TEHRAN, 13 Apr. (IPS) With the life of the present Majles (Iranian Parliament) approaching fast, the most urgent question facing the embattled President Mohammad Khatami is the fate of his government, now that the conservatives have taken back the control of the Majles. By Safa Haeri

NO OTHER WAY FOR IRAN BUT TO CHANGE THEOCRACY FOR DEMOCRACY
[Monday, April 12, 2004] LONDON, 12 Apr. (IPS) "There can be no change in Iran unless the present theocratic-based Constitution of the regime is radically changed into a real democracy", says Mr. Mohammad Mohsen Sazegara, a veteran Iranian political dissident, adding that, "however, no real reform could take place from within the system", referring to the failure of President Mohammad Khatami’s efforts to introduce some reforms, even limited. By Safa Haeri

"IRAN DOES NOT WANT TO INTERVENE IN IRAQ", HASHEMI RAFSANJANI
[Friday, April 9, 2004] TEHRAN, 9 Apr. (IPS) Former Iranian President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday said the United States had claimed to help establish a democratic system in Iraq but what they are doing now is massacring large crowds of people. By Safa Haeri

IRAN ANNOUNCES SUSPENDING NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES
[Tuesday, April 6, 2004] TEHRAN, 6 Apr. (IPS) Iran announced on Monday that it will stop building and assembling centrifuges for uranium enrichment this week, but at the same time expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the European countries "big 3".
By Safa Haeri

CASPIAN SEA STATES TO DISCUSS THE SEA’S STATUS
[Monday, April 5, 2004] MOSCOW 5 Apr. (IPS) Kamal Kharrazi, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran called Monday for a "friendly and just" solution to the crippling problem of dividing the Caspian Sea waters. By Safa Haeri

BUSH TO PUNISH COMPANIES SELLING NUCLEAR EQUIPMENTS TO IRAN
[Saturday, April 3, 2004] NEW YORK 3 Apr. (IPS) The Bush administration is imposing sanctions on 13 foreign companies and individuals in seven countries that it says have sold equipment or expertise that Iran could use in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, the New York Times quoted Friday officials from the George W. Bush Administration. By Safa Haeri

AFGHANISTAN SATISFIED WITH THE DONORS
[Thursday, April 1, 2004] BERLIN First of April (IPS) International donors pledged a total of 8.2 billion US Dollars for the war-shattered Afghanistan against Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s request for $27.5 billions in funding over seven years to help stopping his country becoming "a haven for drugs and terrorism". By Safa Haeri